Join us on an uplifting journey as the extraordinary Lauren Daigle shares her deeply personal experiences of battling loneliness and anxiety and how she learned to find joy in the face of great challenges. From her two-year confinement at home during high school to the global pause imposed by the pandemic, her story is a testament to the healing power of stillness and introspection. This episode invites you to explore your stories, confront your realities, and perhaps discover joy in unexpected corners.
Thanks for Listening, and subscribe to hear a new episode each week!
Join us on an uplifting journey as the extraordinary Lauren Daigle shares her deeply personal experiences of battling loneliness and anxiety and how she learned to find joy in the face of great challenges. From her two-year confinement at home during high school to the global pause imposed by the pandemic, her story is a testament to the healing power of stillness and introspection. This episode invites you to explore your stories, confront your realities, and perhaps discover joy in unexpected corners.
Thanks for Listening, and subscribe to hear a new episode each week!
The following program is sponsored by Ron Meyers Ministries.
Ron Meyers:It's time now to get the hell out of your life. A weekly broadcast with real people sharing real struggles and offering real hope. Today's show will encourage, inspire and empower you to face life's challenges with a bold confidence and renewed hope. Now let's join our host, ron Meyers. The promoter.
Ron Meyers:Hello, my friends, it is so good to be with you. Have you had your time with Jesus, conversations with Jesus this week? Coffee with Jesus, a day at the beach with Jesus, five minutes with Jesus. You know, I'd encourage everyone I talk to spend some time with Jesus. Just share your heart, telling what you're concerned about, whether it's world issues, whether it's personal, whether it's marital or financial. Just share your heart and then be quiet and wait till you begin to hear what he has to tell you. Yes, he has something for each of us and he wants to have that dialogue.
Ron Meyers:Well, today I have an interview that I had listened to on WGTS FM radio and Lauren Daigle. And I brought Lauren Daigle here in concert in the early days I mean she had just got out of college, I believe at LSU. I had her booked at a concert at First Baptist Church in Gulfport and she was with a group called Big Daddy Weave, and that night during dinner, I told Lauren. I said you know, lauren. You do know, don't you, that you're going to go on and be a big star. And she looked at me with those precious eyes and said do you really think so? Yes, she is a mega star today, fills up arenas all over the world. You're going to hear Lauren talk about how she is on a mission to eradicate loneliness. She sits down with our friends at WGTS radio and Lauren Daigle opens up about overcoming loneliness and finding purpose. I believe you're going to be very blessed and encouraged. Let's take a listen to Lauren Daigle. Let's take a listen to Lauren Daigle.
Lauren Daigle:My life was absolutely spinning out of control. I was seeing a neurologist, I was going to therapy. I was trying to figure out what is going on. I didn't realize the weight of what I took on every night during a show. I don't want to sit here and go through life just maintaining you have to return to me the joy of my salvation. We have to stop being so busy and there are people out there with not a single friend. I want to be someone who is known as helping eradicate loneliness.
Lauren Daigle:So in 2018, we released the record Look Up Child and it really did change the trajectory of my life. I remember we had just finished touring in Australia when 2020 rolled around, but we had started on the United States leg of the world tour. I think we had something like 72 shows lined up for that and a show number 10 or 12 it was. Everything came to a crashing halt. You think in moments like that, where the bottom drops out, you'll have it a little bit more together than what I did.
Lauren Daigle:I remember the isolation part wasn't something that was new to me. I had been in isolation in high school. I had an illness, so I was placed on homebound for two years and was experiencing true isolation. A lot of people were isolated together during the pandemic, like the whole world kind of shut down In high school, only my world shut down. So it was definitely a different experience. But I remember feeling the isolation in 2020 and thinking this is actually one of the best gifts that life could have given me, that God could have given me right now, because it made me have to be still and reconcile with the fact that my life was absolutely spinning out of control. I remember, in this isolation, being so grateful for it because I I was able to refine the beauty of life again in the simple things like walking to the grocery store and seeing someone smile on the street corner, finding time with family again that was just so rich and being able to redeem some of the years that had been gone for so long. So there was really really beautiful elements. But with my world coming to a crashing halt, it was like whiplash. It wasn't just.
Lauren Daigle:My mom often talks about that time she was telling a friend like for Lauren, it wasn't just that the world shut down, it was also that her life prior to the world shutting down was moving at a speed that wasn't even good for humanity as a whole right, it's not good for a human being to be going that fast. But not only were they going that fast, they didn't just come back to regular life, they then went backwards to having to be completely still, and the thing that was the hardest for me during that time was not having any correspondence or interaction with people. I remember thinking to myself like I didn't realize the weight of what I took on every night during a show, like I get excited. I look for those responses in people's faces. I say God, where are you meeting this individual? How can I partner with you in bringing love and joy and hope to those people? When you're doing like 900 Zoom concerts, it doesn't really feel the same because you don't have people on the other side that you can extend love to in those moments the way that you would in a live show.
Lauren Daigle:It was definitely difficult and from that experience I started dealing with a lot of anxiety, a lot of depression, a lot of panic attacks, and I was seeing a neurologist, I was going to therapy, I was trying to figure out what is going on. My life just felt like it was fully flipped upside down, and I feel like that's a relatable story for a lot of people. I feel like a lot of people experienced a very similar maybe not from like a stage kind of thing or having a platform, but from the sense of life was one way, and now I'm being told a completely different construct that I'm having to give in to. That was really really tough. And so, through the panic and through the anxiety, I say God, you have to return to me the joy of my salvation, like the true joy. I don't want to be, I don't want to sit here and go through life just maintaining. I want to go through life with exuberance, with zeal, with passion. I don't want to maintain what I've created, what's been created for me over the past 10 years. And when you allow God to come into those broken places and say I'll return to you the joy of your salvation, it is like this beautiful lens gets added to your, your eyes, and you're able to see through. It's like the glory filter, like walking through life and seeing the kingdom versus the things in the natural, like looking at scenarios and saying, oh, I can run into that scenario because I know who has me, I know who holds me and pursuing even trials and tribulations with joy.
Lauren Daigle:I found myself really interested in what Paul talked about when he said consider it joy, my friends, whenever X, y and Z happens, whenever troubles come, or how he could be content in all things, whether he was in prison, whether he was in a shipwreck or whether he was, like you know, king of the world. Right, he, he found contentment in all things and that began to be the prayer on my lips. Like I want to figure out this contentment. What does this look like? To have everything and to have nothing and feel the exact same, like I want that wholeness, if you will. And so from 2020 and 2020 and 2021, the chaos of what was there it was like 2022 was the rebuilding in 2023, I feel like I'm I'm just, yeah, I'm excited about what God has, and the joy that I get to feel every day, even in the midst of difficulty, is unlike anything else in this world.
Lauren Daigle:Loneliness is a really interesting topic. I remember years ago, somebody asked me when you leave this earth, what is the legacy that you want to leave behind? Like, you have a platform, you have a name, all the things. What do you want to leave behind? And I remember it wasn't. Oh, I want 900 Grammys. That sounds great. I'm not against it, but the thing that I said is I want to be someone who is known as helping eradicate loneliness, because I remember, before I was ever doing music, being in high school, being in junior high I would look for the lonely person in the room, for whatever reason. God highlighted loneliness to me. It's the feeling that I don't like, probably the most of all feelings I do not like feeling lonely, and I'll find myself chasing every hour of the night just trying to escape going to sleep because I don't want to feel lonely. And that's a real thing for a lot of people. And then some and there are people out there with not a single friend, and that's a problem. For those who do have friends, that's a problem. We need to be more active in more people's lives. All of that to say.
Lauren Daigle:There was a mandate in the beginning of time that said love your neighbor, as yourself, like God wrote it in the commandments, right, he wants us to love others, and one of the things that we can do in regards to loneliness is love our neighbor. So when you go to the grocery store and you're sitting there checking out, look at the cashier and say how's your day? What's going on? How can I put a smile on your face today? When you're walking on the sidewalk and you pass someone, you can say, hey, I hope you're having a great day, or hello, and you just never know what a countenance of kindness can offer someone.
Lauren Daigle:The reality is, if we're living by those commandments to love your neighbor as yourself, to love others we have to stop being so busy. We have to be able to look at the person next to us and see their scenario, see what they're going through and love them as we would love ourselves. It wasn't the commandment to make this much money, the commandment to be this successful, the commandment to have this many things on your to-do list that get crossed off. It was the commandment to love others. And so, whenever we look at society, the stillness is what brings the fruit. And so, yeah, I would say, how can music help? How can we, as Christians, help solve this problem of loneliness? I would say it's to be present and to see others in their situation, not in the situation you want them to be in, but actually in their situation. How can you go and tend to their needs right then and that moment, whether it's just someone on the side of the road, like you can talk to homeless people. It's okay, you know you can say hello to a homeless person and keep going on your day. But I find myself really seeing Jesus the most clear in those moments. And I'm not delighted in those moments but like, actually you'll find you thought you were going to help them or give them a smile and your heart will light up in a way that you haven't felt in years. That's what my journey has been over the past couple of years, talking to people again.
Lauren Daigle:I think a lot of times in media we can read where this headline is saying this, this headline saying this, this headline saying this, and it makes you want to not engage with humanity. It makes you kind of like I got to keep this protection mechanism up at all times. Or else what if the bottom drops out and I'm caught on camera, you know, or whatever. I think those headlines kind of naturally psychologically dictate that we would be more of a reserved people. That's not. That isn't actually what Jesus would want. He would want us to run into the world and say oh, let me show you kindness, let me show you love, let me show you hope, and with that.
Lauren Daigle:It comes with interacting with the people around us. How can music help? Let's get back to that. Music can help, because there's something really powerful about music that it opens up the doors to the soul. It opens up the doors to the spirit. It's the universal language. God can come through the airwaves and make you feel things that you haven't felt in years. He can make you feel passionate, he can make you feel love, he can make you feel joy, he can make you feel sorrow, he can make you feel grief. There's so many things that can come through the medium of music, and music has this way of interacting and intersecting our stories right when we need it.
Lauren Daigle:I've heard so many people say that they were going to end their life and then a song came right at that moment and it changed everything for them. It gave them a new, fresh perspective, a fresh way of hope, and I think that's the power of God interacting with our stories in a song. And there's something about music that allows those walls that we've protected ourselves with to just come down ever so slightly in, for God to come and meet with us, and that's the power of music. It's a really beautiful thing, the thing that's really special about having community regarding music, regarding radio stations, regarding music being on the radio, these stories, these lyrics, in particular, running its way into your car stereo, your house stereo, like there's something about that that's really powerful and to me, I have seen incredible fruit.
Lauren Daigle:I've had people write stories that say, hey, I was going through this at this time, I was experiencing cancer at this time and I heard this song on the radio and it became the song that I listened to every time I was doing chemotherapy. I had to go through countless surgeries and this was the song that I played in the OR. I lost a loved one and at that time, as they were taking their final breath, we played this song. I was going through divorce and I was completely alone and I remember this song met me right when I needed it. Countless stories, people who went to in their life.
Lauren Daigle:I had this one lady tell me and this is really intense, but this was one story that just stuck with me so profoundly. She said that she had an abortion 10 years prior to this song and she said she couldn't lift her head off the pillow Like the grief. She thought she was doing the right thing and then it ended up being just a really tragic situation. And she said for years and years she dealt with shame and she didn't know how to interact with the world, how to get up again after that. And she said she heard how can it be for the first time and it was the first time in 10 years that she was like, okay, I can face the day.
Lauren Daigle:And when you see that music can be on a radio station right when someone needs it, that a song can come right when someone needs it and redefine their worth, redefine the way God sees them, there's something that only music can do with that right. And so I think a lot of times there's this bonding agent. That happens too with music. So for me, I get the privilege of being on stage and seeing it happen in front of my eyes, but people will bond over a song.
Lauren Daigle:I remember this lady telling me this story of coming to one of the concerts alone, and there was this fan forum or something of people telling their stories of going to a concert and she mentioned that she was going to go by herself. Well, this other lady was going by herself and she said well, I'm going, we should actually just go, let's meet up and go together. So they met outside of the show and they came to the show together. They became best friends from that scenario and then moved to the same town so that they had friendship. This goes back to talking about loneliness. People find community through music. People find love and compassion and a sense of purpose with music. That is really, really powerful and I got to witness that with my own eyes. Two individual stories that might have experienced loneliness and music brought friendship. So I say all of that to say I think the power of music to bring community through radio stations is a really beautiful thing that we have in the world.
Ron Meyers:You're listening to Get the Hell Out of your Life with your host, ron Myers. Real stories, real struggles and real hope. What's your story.
Speaker 5:We're looking for stories of hope and overcoming life struggles with God's grace. Your story validates God's law of mercy, restoration and forgiveness. We want to help you share your story with the world. Visit our website, thepromoterorg, and click on the Share your Story link and submit your story. Your testimony of God's amazing grace will change a person's destiny for eternity.
Speaker 6:The Christmas City Gift Show. We've transformed the entire Mississippi Coast Convention Center in Biloxi into an illusion of Christmas, with gifts for everyone Games, planes, jewelry and toys, paintings, pottery, candles and food guaranteed to put you in the Christmas mood. Visit the North Pole with free kids' crafts and photos with Santa himself. Bring the whole family to the event. Everyone is talking about the Christmas City Gift Show in Biloxi, inside the Mississippi Coast Convention Center, the holiday event you've been waiting for. Produced by Ron Myers, it's the greatest show in the South.
Speaker 1:You miss the 40th anniversary edition of the Christmas City Gift Show. Friday November 10th through Sunday November 12th inside the Convention Center at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi. For tickets and more information, log on to ChristmasCityGiftShowcom. That's ChristmasCityGiftShowcom.
Lauren Daigle:Welcome back listeners.
Ron Meyers:Weren't those some encouraging words from the testimony of Lauren Dago? Wow, it just makes us think that when we love others, when we are looking at the world through the kingdom eyes, what Jesus wants us to see, we see people needing a smile, compassion, some joy. You know, too many of us look for what's going wrong with the world and there's a lot of things going wrong, but there are many, many things going right in the world People like Lauren Dago sharing her love on the stage every night somewhere. What about you? I know you are doing good things. Maybe you're smiling at people that are in a grocery line, that look like they're having trouble. Maybe you say hi to the homeless people. Maybe you do some work at your church or the nursing homes. Whatever it is, we can never stop. The world needs love. The Bible says that God is love and when we carry around Jesus inside of us, we have the power to eradicate loneliness. As Lauren said, what a goal to have to eradicate loneliness. Loneliness is when people do strange things. That's when addiction happens. That's when self harm happens. We have the ability and the power and the strength and the wisdom and we need the courage to share Jesus with someone. No, you don't have to stand on a soapbox and start preaching to them. You can meet them where they are at. Just listen, have a conversation.
Ron Meyers:I remember when Lauren Dago was in concert, I had brought them in with Big Daddy Weave, jason Gray and Citizens Wait. They said about 2 pm in the afternoon that everybody would have to leave the auditorium and I thought, wow, wonder what that means. So I'm a promoter, you know, I'm paying all the bills. So I said I'm going to stay around and see. And what they did had a very strong impact on me to this day. They went and prayed over every single chair in that auditorium. In other words, what you see on stage with these Christian artists, it's the real deal and music is so powerful.
Ron Meyers:I don't know if many of you listen to Christian music, but Christian music is good music and a lot of the country music is good music. I just don't get into a lot of that new age stuff Cause I'm an old. I'm an old timer. I like the easy going stuff, but music is powerful. Music meets us and the words meet us where we are at.
Ron Meyers:Don't all of us have a special song in our life that really means something to us. Well, why not today? Make a commitment that you're going to do your part to eradicate loneliness. Smile, love, compassion. Look at the world with those kingdom eyes. Don't be afraid to reach out to people that look different, act different and are different. That's exactly what Jesus would do. I ask people all the time do you think Jesus, if he was walking the streets today, do you think he'd go into a church? Heck, no, I think he would be walking the streets and the bars and the lounges, in all the crazy places, because he wants to go where people need hope, where they need love, and in the meantime, until he returns, he wants us to walk in those places. In other words, friends, part of our destiny is to be the hands and feet of Jesus. Friends, you can do it. I know you can. That's why you're listening to this show, because something is telling you that God is about.
Ron Meyers:You're listening to Get the Hell Out of your Life with your host, Ron Myers. Real stories, real struggles and real hope.
Speaker 1:We would like to express our gratitude to Coffee News for their support of this program. Are you tired of scrolling through the same old news feeds every morning? Then switch things up with Coffee News. Our publication is filled with interesting stories, brain teasers and uplifting quotes that are sure to brighten your day, and now you can access Coffee News anytime, anywhere, by visiting our website. So, whether you're sipping your morning coffee at your favorite cafe or browsing online from your desk, we've got you covered. Start your day off right with Coffee News at readcoffeenewsonlinecom.
Speaker 7:I read once that adversity is never reliable evidence that God is opposed to you. The world is broken and we all go through difficult times of one sort or another. There are even times when we truly suffer and hope seems lost. This can be especially disappointing when we carry an expectation that life will only have smooth sailing. We need someone or something to blame, and God becomes one of those scapegoats. However, the truth is that the only answer to those at first times is Jesus. Jesus offers hope when we are filled with fear. He offers peace when we only see trouble. He offers purpose when we are lost. We were created for and need that kind of personal relationship with Jesus Christ. If you want to learn how to trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then call or text us at 888-NEED-HIM. 888-need-him.
Speaker 1:Ron will be back in a moment to wrap up today's conversation. We want to encourage you today with God's promise to you. It comes from the book of Jeremiah, chapter 29, verse 11. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and the future. That's God's promise to you when you choose to commit your plans and future to Him. Now back to Ron.
Ron Meyers:Well, friends, my time is up. Spend some time with Jesus this weekend and if you are feeling lonely and isolated, open up. Share your heart with Jesus. When you give Jesus your heart, he will give you peace and, most of all, he will give you answers. Remember to look me up at the Christmas City Gifts show, november 10th through 12th in the Biloxi Convention Center and give me a shout out. Tell me you listen to the show. In the meantime, remember this that I love you, jesus loves you, and when you give Jesus your heart, he not only takes the hell out of your life, but he gives you your destiny.
Ron Meyers:Get the hell out of your life is underwritten by the Christmas City Gifts show. We invite you to come shop with over 260 vendors from all over the United States, november 10th through the 12th inside the Coast Convention Center located on the beach in Biloxi, mississippi. You can find more information at ChristmasCityGiftsShowcom. If you would like to share your story of God's amazing grace or listen to previous episodes, please visit our website, thepromoterorg. Join us next week for another episode of Get the Hell Out of your Life real stories, real struggles and real hope.